134: Chapter 135 A Billion-Dollar Unrestricted Trial and Error: The Heavy Industry Leader's Three-Year Pledge

Early April on the streets of Shanghai still carried a hint of spring chill.

Accompanied by the low, aggressive roar of a V8 engine.

A boxy, pitch-black mercedes-benz g55 AMG rolled cleanly over a speed bump.

It drove straight through the gates of Jianfeng Precision Machinery Factory.

In the driver's seat.

Shen Du steered the heavy, stiff mechanical steering wheel with one hand, tossing his secure communication phone into the passenger side storage compartment.

Hong Yun still needed some time to finish handling matters out of town and return to Shanghai.

However, the physical hardware production for the cold-magnetic engraving machine could not afford a moment's delay.

The underlying components of this disruptive equipment could not be entrusted to any manufacturer with foreign capital background or wavering stances.

Looking across all of Shanghai.

The only domestic ally that possessed top-tier precision manufacturing heritage, had been tempered by fire and blood during the previous struggle against the Beijing Capital Circle, and whom Shen Du could absolutely trust, was Li Jianfeng.

At this moment, inside the chairman's office on the third floor of the factory building.

Li Jianfeng stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a half-smoked Zhonghua cigarette.

Hearing the roar of the engine from below.

His knuckles, thick and prominent, paused slightly. He moved to pry open a gap in the blinds and looked down.

In his line of sight, that black mercedes-benz g55 was already parked steadily in the exclusive spot below the office building.

In the Shanghai business circle of 2012, there were many bosses who could pull out millions in cash.

But the vast majority would choose the more comfortable Mercedes S-Class or Audi A8, which were more suitable for business receptions.

Very few young people would buy such an off-road vehicle that had absolutely no comfort to speak of, purely showcasing wildness and violence.

Except for that young man downstairs, who held heaven-defying cash flow and never played by the rules.

Watching Shen Du push open the car door and walk straight toward the office building entrance.

Li Jianfeng forcefully stubbed out the remaining half of his cigarette in a glass ashtray.

He turned around, walked quickly to the solid wood tea table, and pressed the switch on the electric kettle.

When Shen Du pushed the door open to enter the office.

The electric kettle on the mahogany tea table happened to make a "gurgling" boiling sound, with a few wisps of white steam spilling out from under the lid.

Li Jianfeng casually picked up the purple clay teapot, skillfully scalding the teacups with boiling hot water.

He didn't even bother with the courtesy of standing up to greet him, simply lifting his chin and gesturing, "Make yourself at home. What brings President Shen to wander over to my place today?"

Shen Du tugged at his slightly tight tie, pulled out the armchair opposite the tea table, and sat down.

He reached out to pick up the freshly poured Da Hong Pao tea, blew on the rising heat, and took a light sip.

Without any pleasantries or beating around the bush, he spoke bluntly: "You should have heard some rumors; I've set up a laboratory over in Sheshan recently and have been tinkering with some rare things."

Li Jianfeng didn't stop pouring the tea, only glancing at him through the mist rising from the tea table, waiting for what came next.

"Now the authorities have released ten billion in funding, and at the same time, they've issued me a military order."

Shen Du set down his teacup, his fingertips tapping lightly on the tabletop: "They demand that after my production line is built, all related underlying original equipment must be produced domestically in the future."

Hearing the words "ten billion" and "underlying equipment."

Li Jianfeng's wrist jerked to a stop, and a few drops of scalding tea splashed directly onto the hollowed-out solid wood tea tray.

Having worked in precision machinery for so many years, Li Jianfeng knew the industrial ins and outs of both domestic and foreign sectors too well.

What kind of rare thing could make the state dump ten billion into it and forcibly require domestic production?

Besides that Lithography Machine, which the West held a stranglehold on, what else could it be?

Li Jianfeng immediately set down the purple clay teapot and grabbed a tissue to wipe the water stains off the back of his hand.

He waved his hands repeatedly, his tone filled with clear-headed resistance: "President Shen, aren't you overestimating me, Li Jianfeng? While Jianfeng Precision did start out in heavy industry and precision machining, if you want me to work on something as cutting-edge as a Lithography Machine... that's pure interdisciplinary metaphysics."

Li Jianfeng leaned back in his chair, his brows furrowed tightly: "The technical generation gap involved simply cannot be bridged in a short time, no matter how many billions are thrown at it."

Watching Li Jianfeng's resistant reaction, as if avoiding a venomous snake, Shen Du leaned back in the armchair without refuting him.

He knew very well.

In this era, where the global semiconductor academic circle was brainwashed by "extreme ultraviolet thermal engraving."

Trying to drag an industrialist who had spent half his life in traditional mechanical precision to explain what the counter-intuitive "magnetic confinement cold engraving" was would be a complete waste of breath.

Shen Du didn't engage with Li Jianfeng's complaints about the "technical generation gap."

Instead, he simply unzipped the black briefcase he was carrying and pulled out a stack of special printing paper as thick as half a fist.

"Clap!" With a dull, soft sound.

This heavy stack of custom equipment blueprints, along with a detailed-to-the-extreme physical parameter specification sheet, was slapped unhesitatingly by Shen Du onto the solid wood tea tray in front of Li Jianfeng.

"Old Li, you've misunderstood."

Shen Du leaned forward slightly, pointing to the stack of blueprints, his tone as calm as if he were discussing an ordinary machine tool part: "What I want is not some extreme ultraviolet Lithography Machine. Nor do I need you to obsess over those perverted optical lenses monopolized by the West."

He used his knuckles to tap heavily twice on the top assembly structure diagram, which was filled with complex coils and fluid data: "Open it and take a look. What I want are just these purely physical and material-based heavy industrial components on the blueprints. High-pressure cold plasma generator components, Superconducting magnetic interference array component, and extremely high-purity silicon-germanium-carbon superlattice hybrid materials... and so on."

Li Jianfeng, half-doubting, reached out and took the thick stack of blueprints.

He casually pulled his glasses from his shirt pocket and perched them on the bridge of his nose.

Turning to the first page, his gaze instantly became exceptionally sharp.

As a top insider who had been grinding away in the Shanghai precision machinery field for most of his life.

Li Jianfeng didn't look at the flowery concepts in blueprints; he only looked at machining tolerances and material stress.

When his eyes swept over those parameters for pipelines and coils, where the precision was strictly locked at the nanometer level and the assembly logic completely contradicted conventional industrial configurations.

The resistance on his face was gradually replaced by bewilderment.

"High-pressure cold plasma generator? And this kind of extreme purity silicon-germanium-carbon hybrid material..."

Li Jianfeng furrowed his brows tightly.

The rough pads of his thumbs quickly rubbed against the edges of the special printing paper, causing the paper to make a crisp rustling sound: "These cutting-edge things are rarely seen even in the world's top heavy industry laboratories, right? The machining tolerance is extremely low; trying to machine these is truly hellish difficulty."

Saying this, he suddenly raised his head, took off his reading glasses, and stared at Shen Du, his face full of confusion: "Isn't the funding released from above for making chips? Why do you want these purely physical devices that look like MRI machines? What do they have to do with semiconductors when put together?"

Facing Li Jianfeng, whose cognition was completely imprisoned by traditional semiconductor common sense.

Shen Du did not follow his train of thought to explain the concept of cold engraving.

He did not address Li Jianfeng's doubts.

Instead, he held up an index finger, put strength into his wrist, and tapped his knuckles heavily on the cover of the blueprints, making a dull "thud."

"Old Li, we aren't at an academic symposium right now; I am not responsible for popularizing the underlying physical logic for you."

Shen Du met Li Jianfeng's eyes directly, interrupting his questioning, and gave an extremely simple and crude commercial instruction: "You don't need to know what these parts are used for. You just need to tell me. Can Jianfeng Precision manufacture them exactly as they are, strictly according to all the tolerances and specifications on these blueprints?"

Shen Du withdrew his finger and leaned back into the armchair.

He directly threw out that terrifying bargaining chip, enough to stun any entrepreneur in the real economy: "In the early stages, you don't need to consider the issue of mass production lines. As long as you take this job, I can first transfer one billion US dollars directly to Jianfeng Precision's account through an overseas account, as pure funding for early research and trial and error."

Hearing the words "one billion US dollars," Li Jianfeng's fingers holding the blueprints stiffened, and his breathing even stalled for half a beat.

In 2012, this converted to a full six billion plus RMB in cash flow! For a private heavy industry enterprise struggling in the real manufacturing sector with extremely low profit margins, this money was simply a mountain of gold falling from the sky.

Before he could recover from the extreme shock, Shen Du continued, giving the ultimate latitude: "I'm not forcing you to sign any one or two-year military order. As long as you can guarantee that within five years, you will fully master all the technology for these devices on the blueprints, I will accept it even if this money is all wasted in trial and error."

The spacious office instantly fell into a deathly silence, with only the water boiler beside the purple clay tea table still making a faint boiling sound.

Facing this huge sum of R&D funding that could completely change the fate of his enterprise, and Shen Du's absolute trust, which was almost like handing over his life, the fierce blood and courage belonging to a heavy industry entrepreneur in Li Jianfeng's eyes were stimulated without reservation.

Although the technical barriers on the blueprints were extremely high, and even filled with completely unknown machining disasters, as long as he had this six billion plus RMB to throw into cost-insensitive trial and error, there was no metal that couldn't be machined!

"Clap!"

Li Jianfeng didn't ask any more nonsense.

He slammed the thick stack of documents heavily onto the solid wood tabletop, causing the purple clay cup next to it to splash out a few drops of murky tea.

"President Shen, since you dare to entrust your very foundation to me, then I, Li Jianfeng, will burn all the hundreds of machine tools in the factory if I have to, but I will definitely chew through these pieces of iron for you!"

Li Jianfeng stood up abruptly.

Due to the intensity of the movement, the mahogany office chair behind him was shoved backward, making a harsh screeching sound.

He pressed his hands firmly on the edge of the tea tray, staring at Shen Du opposite him: "Five years is too long! I guarantee you, three years at most. I will definitely achieve an autonomous closed loop for all the technology inside!"

Facing this military order, which carried the momentum of burning one's bridges, Shen Du leaned forward without a word.

The two men's hands reached across the rising, scalding tea mist and gripped each other firmly.